We have thus arrived at the middle of the little volume, which we have introduced to our readers; and as the remaining moiety, though abounding with admirable advice upon questions of infinite magnitude, and though replete with the maxims of undoubted wisdom and pious exhortation, which the scholar may read for the beauty of the language, and with which the Christian cannot but be edified, presents us with nothing new, and calls for no particular comment at our hands; we shall content ourselves with stating the contents of the several chapters, which stand thus: Chap. VII. The Difficulties and Objections connected with the Doctrine of Perpetuated Friendship. VIII. Thoughts on the Final Interview of the Wicked, and the ultimate Consequences of Unholy Fellowship. IX. Hints on the Importance of Personal Religion, designed chiefly X. Remarks on the Choice of Friends, and on the Formation of the XI. Hints on the Duty of Christians towards their Irreligious Friends. Yet we Here we think we might properly terminate our review. are sensible that our readers will expect to learn what our author has said of a question, which never fails to perplex inquirers into the condition of the children of God in heaven. We refer to the pain which, it is apprehended, must of necessity accompany any knowledge which the righteous may hereafter have, in regard to the doom of impenitent friends, whom they must know, upon the hypothesis of perpetuated consciousness and mutual recognition, to be in a state of remediless perdition. The sainted wife may surely thus have to shed the tear of unavailing sorrow over the object of her conjugal love, and the christian parent may be doomed to carry into the regions of light and peace, something of that feeling which agonized the soul of a pious monarch, and wrung from his lips the heart-rending words which he uttered, as he went to his chamber, to mourn in secret over the death of a profligate child, saying, "O! my son Absalom! my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee! O Absalom, my son! my son!"-P. 211. It is somewhat singular that our author seems partly to rely upon a solution of this difficult question, which flatly contradicts what, in a prior part of his work, he has stated relative to the recognition of our friends hereafter. But we must quote the two contradictory passages. What blessedness will it be for PARENTS and CHILDREN, and other endeared friends . . to approach in company, not the streams, but the very fountain of life and happiness, &c.-P. 182. VOL. XIV. NO. VII. If the Christian carried into the future world the same affections which are involved in the natural relations of the present life, they would, for aught that appears to the contrary, become the source of inquietude, and embitter the enjoyments of eternity.P. 214. 3 F We know, indeed, that our author would escape from this charge of inconsistency by insisting upon "the wonderful power of moral character, to awaken or diminish the affections of the heart;" (p. 217.) and by reminding his readers that "the profligacy of a son has often overpowered the natural affection of a sorrowful parent, and turned it into sentiments of strong aversion." (p. 216.) Yet this statement is no answer to our accusation; for, in the first place, our author relies here upon an extreme case; and, in the next place, we contend that the extinction of the natural affections in heaven, according to the tenour of the passage just quoted from p. 214, is absolutely irreconcileable with the assumption of the augmentation of blessedness from the celestial intercourse of parents and children. How much more wise, how much more consistent with piety, how much more characteristic of christian humility, would it be at once to confess our ignorance of these mysteries, and to rest in full assurance that the moral governor of the universe will, in the world to come, "make all things work together for our good," and dispense our respective measures of bliss in perfect accordance with what is equitable and right; "Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments!" We would not be understood to deny the hypothesis of our author touching the recognition of men hereafter, or the perpetuation of christian friendship in heaven. Far from it. There are many arguments, as our author has taught us, to manifest the plausibleness of his position; there are many analogies confirmatory of his doctrine; there are many incidental statements of holy writ which his industry and talent have made to strengthen the opinions which he so zealously advocates; and there are ten thousand moral purposes connected with his hypothesis, which lead us to wish it true: but we confess that "we are not careful" to spend any anxious intenseness of thought upon a point, which the author of our faith has thought fit to leave in some obscurity; and we are not without fear, that the transcendental pietism engendered by these visions of glory, above what God has revealed, may interfere with the sober duties of practical piety, and the homely lessons of daily righteousness, which, through faith in Christ, are the appointed "pathway" to heaven. We have no room for further comment. There is much amiable piety, much eloquent writing, and much excellent hortatory matter in Mr. Muston's volume. Again we assure him that we have read it with pleasure, though our duty compels us to point out its exceptionable parts, amongst which, he will, we are sure, be prepared to hear that we rank the whole of his twelfth chapter, upon "The Nature and Objects of Church Fellowship." ART. II.-Origines Liturgicæ, or Antiquities of the English Ritual, and a Dissertation on Primitive Liturgies. By the Rev. WILLIAM PALMER, M. A. of Worcester College, Oxford. In 2 vols. Oxford. 1832. Pp. ccclxiii. 341. 8vo. THE learned author of these volumes has entered upon a field of inquiry, which, though not entirely untrodden, has been so partially and inefficiently explored, as to afford materials of the most profitable and interesting speculation. We are not without commentaries, practical and doctrinal, on the rubrics and services of the English ritual; and many of the prayers, upon which our own are founded, have been produced by Nicholls and others from the Sacramentary of Gregory; but the origin and antiquity of our rites and forms of worship have never, until now, been completely investigated. In the body of the work before us, the text of the common prayer is placed side by side with the ancient sources from which it was derived; and to the whole is prefixed a dissertation, which is by no means the least important feature in the plan, upon the several Liturgies, which were in use in the primitive Christian Churches. An inquiry of this nature is unquestionably attended with the most important advantages. To observe that the form and substance of our ritual are, mutatis mutandis, essentially conformable with the usages of primitive antiquity; that the spirit which they breathe, and the doctrines which they inculcate, have emanated from the sources of Apostolical purity; that the one Lord Jesus Christ is still the same powerful mediator, and will continue to intercede for his faithful followers, even unto the end of the world; that the one faith, which we still profess, is "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone;" that the one baptism, by which we are baptized into that faith, is still fraught with the same privileges, and as necessary to salvation as when the authoritative command to "baptize all nations" issued from the mouth of the ascending Redeemer; and that the one God, and Father of all, is still "above all, and with all, and in all," who worship in spirit and in truth, endeavouring "to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace ;"-to observe all these points of harmony between the primitive Liturgies and our own, inspires us with a degree of veneration for the latter, scarcely inferior to that which we feel for the sacred Scriptures themselves. There is also another point which renders the study of ancient liturgies peculiarly desirable. If it is an essential in true devotion to "pray with the Spirit," it is no less requisite to "pray with the understanding;" and the aid which is afforded to this end by a comparison of our prescribed forms, with those on which they are built, is incal culably great. Many are the obscurities which may be removed by a reference to the original phraseology or construction of a particular petition; to the connexion in which it stands in the primitive formularies; to the situation which the framer may have held in his particular church; and to a variety of incidental circumstances. We would seriously recommend our clerical brethren to examine attentively the authorities, adduced by Mr. Palmer for the origin of our liturgy, if only with the simple view to an exact knowledge of the bearing of its various parts, and a due appreciation of its minutiæ. The want of feeling which is sometimes displayed, less frequently, it is true, than formerly, in the performance of divine worship; the evident misconception of the meaning of certain passages; the improper emphases, and frigid monotony of expression, which betray so little attention to the deep and comprehensive import of the service, will thus be never more witnessed among us. Such will be the result of a fair and attentive perusal of the "Origines Liturgicæ;" but a critical examination of the subject will afford abundant occupation for the inquiring theologian. Mr. Palmer commences his Dissertation by restricting the term Liturgy to the sense which it bears in the writings of the ancients, as denoting the service used in the celebration of the eucharist. Thus it is synonymous with the word "missa" in the western church; and it was with this service that all the primitive liturgies were connected. An opinion seems to have commonly prevailed that there was originally some one Apostolic form of Liturgy, to which all the ancient forms, of which there are any notices in the Patristical writings, must eventually be reduced. From the difference, however, which exists in their several forms and substance, such a supposition is scarcely probable. But let us hear Mr. Palmer : After a careful examination of the primitive liturgies of the Christian Church, it appears to me, that they may all be reduced to four, which have been used in different churches from a period of profound antiquity. The first may be entitled the great Oriental Liturgy, as it seems to have prevailed in all the Christian Churches from the Euphrates to the Hellespont, and from the Hellespont to the southern extremity of Greece. The second was the Alexandrian, which from time immemorial has been the liturgy of Egypt, Abyssinia, and the country extending along the Mediterranean sea towards the west. The third was the Roman, which prevailed throughout the whole of Italy, Sicily, and the civil diocese of Africa. The fourth was the Gallican, which was used throughout Gaul and Spain, and probably in the exarchate of Ephesus until the fourth century. These four great liturgies appear to have been the parents of all the forms now extant, and indeed of all which we can in any manner discover: and their antiquity was so very remote, their use so extensive in those ages when bishops were most independent, that it seems difficult to place their origin at a lower period than the apostolic age. The liberty which every Christian Church plainly had and exercised, in the way of improving its formularies, confirms the antiquity of the four great liturgies; for where this liberty existed, it could have been scarcely any thing else but reverence for the apostolical source from which the original liturgies were derived, that prevented an infinite variety of formularies, and preserved the substantial uniformity which we find to have prevailed in vast districts of the primitive Church. There can be little,if any, doubt that Christian liturgies were not at first committed to writing, but preserved by memory and practice. However, this did not prevent a substantial uniformity from being continually kept up. Each Church might very easily preserve uniformity in its own liturgy; and if all who had originally received the same followed this plan, a general uniformity would be the result. That each Church preserved continually the same liturgy is certain. It is impossible to peruse the notices supplied by the Fathers, without perceiving that the baptized Christians were supposed to be familiar with every part of the service; and continual allusions are made to various particulars as well known, which it would be impossible to explain, except by referring to the liturgies still extant. The order of the parts was always preserved, the same rites and ceremonies continually repeated, the same ideas and language without material variation, transmitted from generation to generation. The people always knew the precise points at which they were to repeat their responses, chant their sacred hymn, or join in the well-known prayer. If, then, each Church preserved uniformity in its own liturgy, a general substantial uniformity would be found after the lapse of some centuries, in the liturgies of those Churches which had originally received the same order. Thus, when we compare the liturgies of the patriarchates or exarchates of Antioch, Cæsarea, and Constantinople, as used in the fourth and fifth centuries, we find a substantial uniformity pervading them all. Those parts which are common to all, are found arranged in the same order in all. The principal rights are identical. They agree in their principal ideas. Every thing, therefore, concurs to prove the original identity of all three.-Vol. I. p. 8-10. Probably liturgies were committed to writing about the beginning of the fourth century. As they necessarily received continual additions and alterations according to existing circumstances, these, and other incidental matters, have naturally introduced a considerable variation in the MSS. These variations, therefore, afford no argument for the mutilation or corruption of the text; though their importance, in respect to the evidence which they afford to the true nature of faith and practice, will necessarily increase, in proportion as we trace back their substance into antiquity. When their text has been traced to the primitive ages, and we are enabled to bring the sentiments of ancient divines in confirmation of their doctrines, we may receive a satisfaction and confirmation in faith, which cannot perhaps be so fully and completely derived from primitive evidence in any other way. For it was chiefly, if not only, in the mystical liturgy of the eucharist, that the primitive Church spoke without reserve of all the sublimities of Christian faith. When the catechumens and infidels, who were permitted to hear the lessons and sermon, had been dismissed, there was no longer any thing to impede the disclosure of those profound truths, which the faith of the ignorant and undisciplined could not yet receive. It was then, that in the fulness of faith and love and confidence, the brethren offered up prayers to God, and saluted one another with the holy kiss. Then the Bishop, having prepared the bread and the cup, addressed the people, and exhorted them to "lift up their hearts," and "give thanks" to their heavenly Father. After which he offered thanksgiving and blessing to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for all his goodness and mercy to the human race; and, having consecrated the elements, concluded the thanksgivings and prayers, with a doxology, to which all the people answered, Amen. This order varied a little in the different liturgies, but its parts are found in all.-Vol. I. p. 13. |